Paris Attacks Lawyer Unbowed by Big-Case Pressure

Brussels-based lawyer Sven Mary, who stepped into the spotlight this weekend by taking on the defense of Europe's most wanted terror suspect Salah Abdeslam, is a seasoned legal veteran unfazed by political pressure.

The bald-headed attorney -- who once aspired to a footballing career -- demonstrated his legal attacking instinct Sunday when he announced he was filing a complaint against Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.

Named by Brussels daily La Capitale as one of the ten best criminal defense lawyers in the Belgian capital, Mary said he was suing Molins for violating the confidentiality of an ongoing investigation against his client.

"Reading out Abdeslam's deposition during a press conference is a violation" of the law, Mary said after Molins underlined his client's alleged "central role" in planning the November attacks.

Once showing great promise in the ranks of the prestigious Brussels football club Anderlecht until his career was cut short by an injury, Mary has always believed that attack is the best defense.

- 'Stop this guilt complex' -

After meeting Abdeslam for just ten minutes Saturday inside Brussels' federal police headquarters, Mary told a scrum of journalists he would vigorously fight an extradition to France.

Paris has issued an European arrest warrant for Abdeslam, the only survivor from the commando that carried out the November 13 attacks in the French capital that left 130 people dead.

"At one point we have to stop kneeling, to stop this guilt complex that seems to exist in Belgium over the attacks in France," Mary told La Derniere Heure newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.

Mary has also defended many of Belgium's other leading jihadists including Fouad Belkacem, leader of the key Sharia4Belgium group that became a breeding ground for fighters joining Syria to fight with IS.

Acquaintances of Abdeslam approached the bulldog-like Mary late last year while he was still on the run as Europe's most-wanted man. Mary said he agreed to be the man's lawyer in principle.

- 'Abuse of power' -

Equally well-known in Flemish-speaking Belgium as in the French parts, Mary told Le Soir newspaper: "What motivates me is the fight against impunity and the abuse of power."

"Do you remember the live press conferences by the federal prosecutors in the days, and even nights, after the attacks?"

"I was sickened by the way by the way they exploited fear just to gain more power," he said.

Despite the pressures bound with taking on the high-profile case, family man Mary accepted to represent Abdeslam, saying a job "like this is life-changing" including its conclusion.

"This is my job and (being a defense lawyer is) my specialty," he said.

"The Paris attacks repulsed me and I have my own personal viewpoints on jihadism that won't be changed. But my job is to defend those who ask me," Mary said.

Mary insists there is one condition to defending Abdeslam however: that his client admits to being present during the November 13 attacks.

Apart from this Mary -- who had to repeat his first year of law three times at the Dutch-language University of Brussels -- is ready tackle the case head-on.

"I love the law," said the lawyer who is ready to defend anybody, with the exception of those on the extreme right.